1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shift operation apparatus for an outboard motor, an electronic remote control apparatus for a medium-sized ship, and an engine control apparatus which are for remote-controlling a shift mechanism (throttle) of an outboard motor (engine) of a medium-sized ship or the like, and in particular, to apparatuses which can be made small, and in which the operational ease thereof is improved and occurrence of trouble can be prevented.
The present invention relates to an electronic remote control apparatus for a medium-sized ship by which a helmsman remote-controls an engine such as an outboard motor of a medium-sized ship or the like from a pilothouse, and in particular, to an electronic remote control apparatus for a medium-sized ship by which information based on a trouble of an engine can be precisely notified to a helmsman.
The present invention relates to an engine control apparatus for remote-controlling shift control and throttle control of an engine of a medium-sized ship from a pilothouse, and in particular, to an engine control apparatus by which it is possible to prevent a motor or a shift arm and a throttle arm of an outboard motor from being broken due to the failure of an electriced system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An engine control apparatus for remote-controlling shift operation or the like of an engine of a medium-sized ship has been known. The conventional engine control apparatus has a remote control box installed in a pilothouse or the like, a driving unit in which a motor and a gear mechanism actuated on the basis of an signal output by the remote control box, or the like are built-in, a push pull cable for transmitting a driving force generated by the motor to a portion to be operated of a shift mechanism at the engine side, or the like. The driving unit is accommodated in the interior of a hull.
In the conventional engine control apparatus, it is necessary to connect the driving unit provided at the hull side and the portion to be operated in the shift mechanism of the outboard motor via the push pull cable for shift operation. Therefore, there is a great limit to the layout of the push pull cable, and there is a problem on the general versatility.
Further, a sensor for detecting positions (shift neutral, shift forward, and shift reverse) of the shift mechanism is built in the driving unit which is located at a position considerably away from the engine. Moreover, there is the long push pull cable between the driving unit at the hull side and the shift mechanism at the outboard motor side. Therefore, there is the concern that some gap arises between an actual position of the shift mechanism and a shift positional signal detected by the sensor. Accordingly, it has been required that the shift position is accurately detected by the sensor in the vicinity of the engine.
On the other hand, as a method of controlling an engine in a medium-sized ship, an electronic remote control apparatus for a medium-sized ship which is installed in a pilothouse, and by which a motor connected to an engine is controlled by converting operation of a control head by a helmsman into electric information, has been known. In this electronic remote control apparatus for a medium-sized ship, a technique in which, when some unusualness arises in the engine, those are sensed by a sensor which installed therein in advance and are alarmed to the helmsman by flickering of a lamp, buzzer sounds, 7 segment LED, or the like has been conventionally used.
There has been the following problem in the electronic remote control apparatus for a medium-sized ship described above. Namely, with respect to this type of alarm, because an unusual portion is indicated by the number of flickering of a lamp, the way of buzzer sounding, the 7 segment LED, or the like, the helmsman must refer to a manual, and it is difficult to recognize the unusual portion.
An engine control apparatus for remote-controlling shift control and throttle control of an outboard motor of a medium-sized ship has been known. Such an engine control apparatus has a remote control box installed in a pilothouse or the like, and a driving unit in which a motor and a gear mechanism actuated on the basis of an operation signal output by the remote control box are built-in, and a driving force generated by the motor is transmitted to the shift mechanism (shift arm) and the portion to be operated of the throttle mechanism (throttle arm) of the outboard motor, and those are made to be actuated.
A battery voltage is directly applied to the motor, and the motor is controlled by only ON/OFF in accordance with an operation signal.
There has been the following problem in the engine control apparatus described above. Namely, when a minus line of the power sources line of the battery is taken off due to the vibration of a medium-sized ship, a high voltage is applied to a control unit from an alternator, and the voltage is directly applied to the motor of the driving unit. Therefore, there has been the concern that the motor or the shift mechanism and the throttle mechanism of the outboard motor are broken due to excessive electric current being made to flow to the motor.
On the other hand, as a battery voltage used for a medium-sized ship, generally, 12V and 24V are mixed, and a motor for 12V and a motor for 24V which are respectively suitable for the respective battery voltages are used. Therefore, when the driving unit is selected, there is the complication that a motor which is a type suitable for a battery voltage must be selected.